Bedford Residents Raise Concerns Over School District’S Bond Issue

- Monroe News photo by KIM BRENT
Photos depicting redesign plans are seen throughout the lobbies at Bedford High and Junior High Schools. Bedford schools has been hosting tours of the buildings, pointing out damage and other structural and design problems in hopes of raising awareness and support for the bond initiative facing voters on the May 6 ballot.

When Logan Tisdale bought his home in Temperance, he took out a loan like any other resident would.

When applying for that loan, he said he paid special attention to the interest rate, again, like any interested borrower would and calculated what the true cost of buying the home would be.

Before he supports any bond issue from Bedford Public Schools, he wants to make sure the the board of education has done the same.

“I could have paid off my house over 30 years, too. But I saved thousands by not stretching it out that long,” Mr. Tisdale said Tuesday night, using his homeowner’s loan as a metaphor for the district’s failed bond proposal.

“My wife looked at me and said, ‘If we don’t pay this off in 12 years, we’re going to be in trouble.’ And we did — we paid it off in 12 years,” he said.

Mr. Tisdale was just one of a handful of Bedford Township residents who spoke at a town hall meeting the school board held at Bedford High School to give voters a chance to voice their thoughts about the bond.

What was intended to be an opportunity to “share ideas” as Supt. Mark Kleinhans phrased it, quickly turned into a forum for voicing concerns about the bond’s existence in the first place.

The board asked voters on May 6 to approve a 30-year $70.35 million bond issue for a massive building project at all of the district’s buildings. It was defeated 5,203-3,114.

The bond would have cost taxpayers an extra 2.05 mills a year. After the election, the board vowed to regroup and return for a second attempt. They have not decided when they will place the issues on the ballot again.

Many of those who spoke said their biggest issues came with the length of the bond and the amount of money that was asked for, but they also had problems with the board itself.

Residents mentioned how the choices of past boards have affected the district’s credibility, such as the portable classrooms not being removed from the schools as promised. They begged for transparency and for the board to be upfront about the exact amount taxpayers will pay, including interest.

Steve Lennex of Lambertville said he believed the board was looking in the wrong direction with the bond issue. He urged members to look for ways to save money rather than ask for assistance. If a bond was truly needed, however, the current plan needed to be completely rethought.

“It has to be short term, it has to be focused and it has to be small. I’m talking $10 million over 10 years,” Mr. Lennex said. “I want to support the bond issue, but I can’t support what you’ve come up with.”

After the meeting, Mr. Lennex and Mike Jacobs of Lambertville said they have created a political action committee called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility that would organize opposition against the bond if necessary.

The PAC’s true goal, however, would be to make sure all public officials were being “good stewards of residents’ money,” Mr. Lennex said.

But board members remain firm that they cannot deal with current maintenance problems on their own because of a lack in state funding.

President Mike Smith reminded the crowd that the district has been trying to cut down their budget since 2006 when per-pupil funding from Lansing dropped dramatically. From that point on, the district has allotted roughly $45,000 from its annual general fund to help with maintenance issues, but now the problems are too severe.

“We’ve been pushing things — like getting rid of the portables — off because of budget issues,” Mr. Smith said. “We can’t control how (the portables) came to be, but we don’t have enough room to get rid of them. If those portables weren’t being used, they wouldn’t be there.”

Some who voiced opposition against the bond said they would consider supporting a renewal of a sinking fund, but Mr. Smith said that money would not be enough to help the district’s current situation.

“We’ve been Band-aiding things, but we can’t keep doing that,” he said. “We could pass another sinking fund, but those repairs would only last 20 years.”